Paternity leave and protection against detriment or dismissal

Employees are protected from suffering a detriment or dismissal for taking, or seeking to take, paternity leave.

You must not subject an employee to any detriment by acting or deliberately failing to act, because they took or sought to take paternity leave.

Examples of detrimental treatment include denial of promotion, facilities or training opportunities which you normally would have made available to the employee.

If an employee believes you have treated them detrimentally under these circumstances, they may raise a grievance with you. This may result in a tribunal claim for detrimental treatment if you fail to address it.

You must not dismiss an employee or select them for redundancy because they took, or sought to take, paternity leave or prevent an employee returning to work after their paternity leave.

If you dismiss an employee in these circumstances, they may take a complaint of unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal regardless of their length of service.

If there is a redundancy situation at the same time as an employee's paternity leave, you must treat them the same as any other employee under the circumstances. This might be consulting them about the redundancy or considering them for any other suitable job vacancies.